The History of the IB

For all of us, the name of the IB has become a familiar aspect in the daily life in the school, as we can see a lot of logos of it in the walls or in the backs of the shirts of the Honor Societies, or as we can listen of it in most of the activities that our teachers assign to us in many activities in order for us to get ready for it or, in the case of the students of 3° and 4° grade of High School, to get mainly into it with all of its projects.

In this way, and in many others, IB is now a main aspect of the development of the student in High School, but many times we do not consider much of its aspects, just like its journey through the time. For this reason, today I will show you a brief article speaking about the history of the IB.

The first ideas of the foundation of the IB come from 1962, when some teachers of the International Schools Association (ISA), recommended the development of a new international passport for the education of students, passport that would be named “International Baccalaureate”. The idea of this passport for the students of all the world came to its first stone in October 25th, 1968, when the IB Organization was founded in Ginevra, Switzerland.

In 1970, the fruits of the IB Organization were starting to become evident, applying in this year the first exams of the IB Program in 12 schools from 10 different countries. For the next year, IB would already have 749 students in its Program, and it would continue to grow in the next years, expanding to a 1,000 schools in the year of 2000, to 2,000 near 2008, to 3,000 in 2011, and to 4,000 in 2014, reaching today almost 5,000 schools from countries from all the world.

Speaking now about the original subjects for IB, we can also follow their history, speaking first of Theory of Knowledge (TOK) in the year of 1967; Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) in 1968, and the Extended Essay in 1974.

Knowing now a little bit more of the concept of IB, we can approach better to its objective, and how our participation in it can help us grow in our opportunities for the future.